#28 Elevating Customer Experiences: how IT-business alignment transforms customer interactions

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, your host Nienke Bloem engages in a dynamic conversation with Maaike Verwer, a certified customer experience professional, focusing on aligning IT and business processes to enhance customer experience. Maaike and Nienke discuss an impactful collaboration with HomeServe to streamline their customer service, reducing call times and improving satisfaction through automation. Maaike emphasizes the importance of understanding and utilizing existing data in organizations for enhancing customer experience and highlights the need for seamless alignment of data and processes, drawing an analogy to renovating a house. The conversation also delves into agile methodologies, stakeholder management, and addressing concerns related to technology and job insecurity. The episode wraps up with Maaike's recommendation for enhancing CX leadership through data-driven insights. About Maaike Verwer (visit her LinkedIn profile here) Maaike is an enthusiastic, pragmatic and results-oriented professional with a customer-oriented approach (CX based). She has achieved several successes in roles and projects where organizational and IT processes reinforce each other. Maaike believes in the importance of CX and the use of the right and appropriate technology within organizations. Timestamped overview 00:00 Encouraging guests to be proactive and brave. 05:31 Importance of customer experience and IT alignment. 06:37 Utilize existing data efficiently to avoid waste. 11:57 Met Sabio at Genesys conference. 14:06 Ensure understanding, confidence, and process optimization in technology. 17:53 Contact centers transitioning from cost to value. 21:42 Initiate inform transform perform through agile working. 23:45 Tracking project benefits leads to successful change. 28:01 Clear communication key for understanding and alignment. 31:40 Content must be easily accessible for engagement. 33:58 Share small wins, use understandable language, consider perspectives. 38:47 Addressing importance of stakeholder management and technology. 39:50 Career experience taught me to actively listen. 43:03 Recommended books by Maaike.   Maaike’s recommendations Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship, by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig Neuromanagement: het nieuwe managementparadigma, by Sven Gall (in Dutch)